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From announcements in Israel's press.
54 Years of Terrorism Have Plagued Israel Since 1920
By a Features of Israel
Special Correspondent
JERUSALEM — After the
Yom Kippur War, the terror
organizations launched a new
wave of atrocities. This post-
war terror is characterized
by • indiscriminate massacre
of women and children, the
killing of civilians for its own
sake. After the killings in
Kiryat Shemona came the
massacre of the children in
Ma'alot, then the murders in
Kibutz Shamir and Nahariya.
Terrorism has always had
the same face; only the
methods and the weapons
have changed. First came the
rifle and the dagger, the up-
. rooting and burning of plan-
tations, mines and sniping
and pogrom type attacks on
Jewish communities in Arab
cities in the land. The waves
of terror usually came when-
ever the Arabs had qualms
about meeting the Jews face
to face.
At times terrorism flared
up after the regular forces
of the Arabs were defeated
in a general war. This hap-
pened after the War of In-
dependence, and again when
the Arabs were defeated in
the Six-Day War or' after the
Arab countries refused to
go to war over the diversion
of the Jordan water.
The first wave of terrorism
occurred in 1920-21. Previ-
oiisly, with the resumption
of Jewish settlement in the
land of Israel, the Arabs at-
tacked Jewish settlements
but these were mostly cases
of local strife, emanating
mainly from quarrels over
land cultivation and from
jealousy. In 1921 came the
first wave of terrorism de-
signed to serve also as a
means of political pressure.
The intention was to bring
about a change in British
,
'
48 — Friday, August 16, 1974
lievers that Allah and Mu-
hammad were calling them
to kill the Jews.
Seven years later, in April
1936, the most severe wave
of terror that Israel knew
prior to its achievement of
sovereignty broke out. This
wave is known among the
Arabs as "the Arab revolt."
Arab organizations found a
ready ear in Nazi Germany,
and were assured of assist-
ance in liquidating the Jew-
ish community.
The fedayeen concept was
first mentioned in the history
of the Israel-Arab conflict.
Thirty years later, the exam-
ple set then by a gang corn-
der, the cleric- Sheikh Az
a-Din Kassem, was to be
adopted by the organizers of
another wave of terrorism—
the men of the Fatah. The
third wave of terrorism was
the longest, but its defeat
was also the most pronounced.
For the Jewish community,
the 1936 disturbances were
a major test of strength.
This period also witnessed
the swift growth of Jewish
strength, and due to the
trials and tribulatiims, the
armed Jewish force was
able, to enter the War of In-
dependence stronger and bet-
ter organized. Moreover,
while the Jews utilized this
wave of terrorism to become
toughened, the Palestinian
Arabs, on the other hand,
relaxed into a state of leth-
argy which- was reflected in
the 1948 fighting.
The Jewish community
was able to overcome the
dangerous stage in 1936 due
to the backing which it re-
ceived from the British ad-
ministration . a n d . armed
forces in the country. Later,
when the British removed
their protection from the
Jews (after the• publication
of the White Paper), the
THE DETROIT JEWISH HEWS Jews were already capable
policy expressed in its ad-
vocacy of the establishment
of a national Jewish home
in the land of Israel (the
Balfour Declaration).
This wave began with at-
tacks on isolated settlements
in the Galilee (Metulla and
Tel-Hai were 'abandoned).
From the Galilee the terror
swept on to Jerusalem, where
for the first time it assumed
a political-religious charac-
ter. The political national'
slogan was not Palestinian.
The Arabs in the country
talked more about annexation
to Greater Syria under the
rule of Faisal. At that time,
too, Damascus was behind
the murder of_Jews.
The second wave of ter-
rorism broke out eight years
later. This wave was much
more severe than the first,
and the Jews were hit hard.
They were forced to aban-
don '11 settlements through-
out the country; in time most
of them were resettled, but
in 1929, this withdrawal was
a clear-cut Arab victory. The
1929 disturbances proved
that the Arabs in the country
were not capable of living in
peace with a minority in their
midst.
Most of the Jewish victims
in this wave of terrorism
were those who were living
in Arab cities. The terror
showed that there was no
security for Jews living with-,
in an Arab majority. The
Arabs pushed their Jewish
neighbors out of Hebron,
Nablus, Gaza, Tul-Karem,
Jenin and Beth She'an. The
first excuse for these out-
breaks was religious in na-
ture; the Arab violence
broke out when the Arabs
wanted to prevent the Jews
from praying at their holy
place — the Western Wall.
Muslim clerics told the be-
of looking out for themselves.
'At first they were unwilling
to step outside the limits of
self-defense, but as the fight-
ing went on and victims fell,
the daring on the part of the
Jews increased.
The Hagana bolstered its
settlements and converted
them into minor fortresses.
The "tower and stockade"
settlements (Jewish- settle-
ments which were set up
overnight during the mandate
period) came into being, and
many approch roads were
built. The stringency of the
circumstances was a bless-
ing during those years of
terrorism, 52 new settle-
ments were founded and
some of the abandoned points
were rebuilt.
The fourth Arab wave of
terrorism set in after the
Arab defeat in the 1948 war.
Because of prevailing condi-
tions, a new method was
adopted — the raiders made
their incursions from adja-
cent countries, to which they
withdrew until the next raid.
The infiltrators, as they were
then called were organized in
groups for carrying out acts
of murder and pillage.
Various terrorist groups
arose; their names became
lost in the course of time.
The Arab intelligence service
was aided by these terror-
ists. Their work was com-
paratively easy. Entire
stretches of land in Israel
were uninhabited. Newcom-
ers were streaming into the
country from the DP camps
and the Arab lands, and
wherever they settled close
to the borders they became
targets for Arab attacks.
In the first years the Israel
army was unable to find an
answer to the acts of terror.
In 1955 Egypt assumed the
organization of the fedayeen
actions, releasing criminals
from prisons on condition
that they join the ranks of
the fedayeen. They commit-
ted indiscriminate killings of
children. Israel reacted with
heavy retaliatory blows, and
eventually came to the con-
clusion that it would be pre-
ferable to draw Egypt into
a direct clash.
The fifth wave came in
1965. Its standard-bearers
were the men of Fatah, who
condemned the Arab coun-
tries which refused to under-
take warfare against Israel.
In the inter-Arab conflict,
they found support in Syria.
The Ba'ath leaders in Da-
mascus and the Fatah, began
using new slogans. They
spoke about liberating Pales-
tine by means of a popular
war of liberation. They com-
pared themselves to the Viet-
cong and Israel to the Ameri-
cans in Vietnam.
Unlike what took place in
Vietnam, however, the Arab
population in Israel refrained
from answering the Fatah
call to bear arms in its
ranks. Most of the actions in
this wave of terror were com-
mitted from across the Syrian
border, and some came from
Jordan and Lebanon. The
terrorists gained their ob-
jective of inciting war be-
tween Israel and the Arab
states, but with results quite
opposite to what they had
expected.
The sixth wave began right
after the Six-Day War and
culminated in the Yom Kip-
pur War. This time condi-
tions were better for guerrilla
warfare. The results of the
Six-Day War placed more
than a 1,000,000 Palestinians
under Israel •control. The
political situation following
the Six-Day War favored the
terrorists, from the interna-
tional standpoint, in their war
against Israel.
This wave of terrorism
marked the greatest political
achievement of the terrorist
groups. They were now on
the international , map. Mili-
tarily their attainments were
nil. They were unable to
make the slightest dent in-
side Israel-held territories.
And as their military fail-
ures mounted, so did their
extremism and brutality in
their actions.
Terrorism became more
sophisticated — letter bombs,
skyjacking and electronic de-
vices. Again the terrorists
talked in terms of the Viet-
nam example. They wanted
to convert Amman into
Hanoi, but King Hussein and
his army were not amenable;
the terrorists were eventual-
ly expelled from Jordan. In
the next phase they switched
their activities to outside the
Middle East. The killings
were intended not only for
Israelis, but also for Jews
and others who appeared to
be supporters of Israel. This
time the entire world com-
munity became the victim,
but it remained helpless in
the face of Arab terror
In an attempt to br;. 'n
the terror, the Arabs tn,
to mercenaries. In return
money and arms. they re-
cruited professional killers in
Turkey and Japan and dis-
patched them on murder mis-
sions in Israel. This phase
reached its peak in the mas-
sacres in Lod Airport and in
Munich, at the Olympics —
murder for its own sake.
The Yom Kippur War has
led to the seventh wave of
terrorism—a direct continua-
tion of the previous wave and
identical in its goals with all
the preceding waves. Only
the method has been changed.
placing Israel before new and
brutal problems.